Canadian High School Offers TTRPG Class

[FitzTheRuke]

A local (to me) high school has decided to offer a class on D&D and other TTRPGs!

News Article

I almost regret moving one town over, or my son would have been able to take this class. He'll be out of high school (my daughter is already) by the time it gets picked up by the district (assuming a glowing success, which I expect).

It kind of reminds me of Jim Zub's Ted Talk where he describes all the benefits to their careers, that he and his gaming group experienced by playing TTRPGs.

As a long time advocate of games, (and the owner of a FLGS), I approve!

 

[J.Quondam]

Looks amazing! I wonder how 10 year-old me back in the 1980s would have reacted to hearing that RPG classes would one day be a thing. I probably would never believe it, tbh.
Times sure have changed!

 

[kronovan]

My kids went to school in a city just west of PoCo. This is interesting and welcomed news. I was at high school and college in the same greater metropolitan area in the early days of D&D and there was more discouragement than encouragement to play - a dubious expenditure of time my best friends father would say. I'm very happy to see that things have come this far - good for you school district 43!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My kids went to school in a city just west of PoCo. This is interesting and welcomed news. I was at high school and college in the same greater metropolitan area in the early days of D&D and there was more discouragement than encouragement to play - a dubious expenditure of time my best friends father would say. I'm very happy to see that things have come this far - good for you school district 43!

Yeah, it's pretty cool. My son goes to Moody Sr. My kids would have gone to Riverside if we'd stayed in PoCo. He's pretty jealous, being in Gr 11 this year. It'll probably wind up too late for him, but I expect we'll see it in other schools. I know that Moody, for example, has teachers that could teach it. One of my son's teachers used to own a game store, back in the 90's/early 00's.

I love that they're throwing in a unit on First Nations oral traditions, to show that storytelling as a form has a long and important history for humanity.

 

[kronovan]

Yeah, it's pretty cool. My son goes to Moody Sr. My kids would have gone to Riverside if we'd stayed in PoCo. He's pretty jealous, being in Gr 11 this year. It'll probably wind up too late for him, but I expect we'll see it in other schools..

My kids went to Burnaby South, but they're a ways out of high school with my youngest nearing University graduation. My son in particular would have loved this course and no doubt would have begged to be in it were it available. I appreciate the 1st nations content too.

D&D hadn't gotten the highly negative-satanic BS leveled at it yet when I played in high school and college. And while folks from all walks were suspicious of it, the club at UBC where I 1st played was a run away success. We had amazing creative energy in particular from students from the Fine Arts faculty. I played in some homebrew campaigns there that to this day are among the best I've ever sat down to a table for. So having seen all sorts of weird, wonderful and fun creations being served up from a bubbling cauldron of creativity at a campus club, I think I can appreciate the educational potential of it.

 

[Cruentus]

My son's gradeschool offers "electives" over the course of its trimesters: things like Chess, Logic Puzzles, Theatre, Finance, Video Editing, Newspaper/letter publishing, including DnD. My son loved it, but didn't love that 17 other people also signed up for it. Made for less a "party" adventure and more a "warband" adventure. He told me he learned a lot about "what not to do" as a DM

 

[kronovan]

,,,Made for less a "party" adventure and more a "warband" adventure. He told me he learned a lot about "what not to do" as a DM

Yeah, in terms of game mastering, that's a valuable lesson in and of itself. I'm surprised the teacher didn't split them up into 3 groups. That said, if none of the students had ever played or more importantly DM'd, that could be tricky.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My son's gradeschool offers "electives" over the course of its trimesters: things like Chess, Logic Puzzles, Theatre, Finance, Video Editing, Newspaper/letter publishing, including DnD. My son loved it, but didn't love that 17 other people also signed up for it. Made for less a "party" adventure and more a "warband" adventure. He told me he learned a lot about "what not to do" as a DM

There was a game-day adventure for D&D Next called "Vault of the Dracolich" that we ran at my store. It was set up for multiple groups to hit the same dungeon at the same time. To make a long story short, we had three groups with three DMs, and I did the job of an "overseer" DM, coordinating where everyone was, delivering messages between groups. It worked out great.

My point is, the teacher ought to teach three or four volunteer students to DM, and go around the tables giving each advice, helping them out, listening to all three groups. (They don't need to be in continuity with each other, like VotD was, but they could all be playing the same adventure).

I can imagine how to do it.

 

[Cruentus]

@FitzTheRuke and @kronovan agreed with both comments. I think they weren't ready for the number of students, and I don't know why she didn't do what you said, and break them up, and maybe have students run the game. They ended up eventually breaking it up into two groups (the mostly RP group, and the mostly combat group), but they met on alternating weeks, so the off week was "updating character sheets" and other non-game playing.

I think it would have been a great opportunity to work on multiple subjects - story arcs, short stories (backgrounds), math and probabilities, etc. all under the guise of 'playing DnD'.

Even with the minor quibble, I wish I had a class like that in gradeschool. Way back in the dark ages (late 80's), all I had was me being president of my high school's DnD club. Even had that enshrined in the yearbook

 

[FitzTheRuke]

A LOT of the educational benefits of D&D (not all, mind) is in the DMing.